A Christmas Eve dilemma and a Farewell

Christmas Eve supper is my time to host a gathering for family. This year, 2013, my daughter, her husband and two boys who live nearby and my son visiting from Maryland will be seated at my table.

The menu varies each year, some years more formal than others. I’ve been trying to decide what to serve this year, thinking on the subject since before Thanksgiving. One minute I have it all planned out, the next I come across a great idea on Pinterest or on any one of my favorite food blogs.

On this Thursday before Christmas, I still have not made up my mind. But, I thought perhaps that sharing my ideas with you—putting them all on paper (computer!)—will help me to make decisions.

My daughter suggested making one of the Christmas ham dinners shown on America’s Test Kitchen (aka CooksCountry.com and CooksIllustrated.com). She swears by their perfected recipes and uses them all the time. If you read my previous blog entry, you know about the baking powder biscuits I made for Thanksgiving, also from America’s Test Kitchen. Hmmm, I may make those biscuits for Christmas Eve.

So, there are numerous great ideas for ham and/or Christmas dinners at America’s Test Kithen, but again it would be a matter of making up my mind.

The Pineapple Mustard Glazed Ham on Cook’s Country sounds like it would be just right. A ham, 2 kinds of mustard, canned pineapple and, of course, brown sugar.

A favorite dessert of mine is Tofu Pumpkin Pie. My grandsons like it but I don’t know if anyone else will eat it.

If I make a pie of any kind, which on first thought seems like a lot of work, I’d use the Perfect Pie Crust recipe from The Pioneer Woman. It’s a winner and really easy! I featured it on Step by Step in the Kitchen when I made a Strawberry Heart Pie in April.

Bacon Wrapped Veggie Bundles with Cider Maple Glaze are delicious. I made them last week and have a few ideas for improving them. First, I would buy the fatter asparagus and cut the other veggies to match the thickness. Second, I would include twice the number of vegetables in each bacon-wrap. Third, I would do the initial 20 minutes on a boiler pan with rack so the bacon grease can drip down into the pan (spraying the rack first). Fourth, before adding the Cider Maple Glaze, I’d move them all to another pan lined with parchment paper. And, last, I would turn down the heat a bit… 425-degrees or even 400. Depends on your oven. Adjust the cooking time, too. Prepping everything early in the day makes this recipe even simpler.

I truly love Brussels sprouts and have been sorely tempted by a recipe for Citrus and Pomegranate Brussels Sprouts. A beautiful dish—simple, simple!

You can probably tell that I’m crazy about vegetables. I even found a great vegetable recipe in a mailing from Bed Bath & Beyond… Audrey’s Ginger and Honey Glazed Carrots. Easy and quick to make.

In that same mailing, BB&B featured a recipe for Orange-Ginger Glazed Ham: ham, orange marmalade, Dijon mustard, fresh ginger (I always have some in the freezer), and cranberry, orange or pomegranate juice.

Holiday dinners typically feature potatoes—mashed, of course. James and Everett’s Colcannon caught my eye. Serious consideration underway.

On the other hand, I may just make plain mashed potatoes… Russets, milk, butter, salt and pepper. On Rachel Ray’s television show recently, she suggested leaving them in the pan, lid on, after mashing and mixing. Place it in a larger pan with simmering water to keep hot for up to several hours.

Back in October I made note of Chicago John’s Blueberry Lemon Slice recipe served with or without a Lemon Cream & Limoncello Syrup. This one is a strong front-runner since everyone in the family likes lemon bars.

My son appreciates a salad with his meals, so that could be a simple add.. mixed greens, dried cranberries and feta cheese with ???? dressing. Oh, dear, another decision. What kind of dressing would go best with these ingredients?

There you have it, my dilemma. As I thought, however, going back through these recipes and seeing them side by side has helped me narrow down my choices. I hope that you are all able to make easy decisions about your holiday meals.


A FAREWELL…


After two years of writing Step by Step in the Kitchen, I’ve decided it’s time for changes in my life. This is my last post on this blog, but I will keep it up on the Internet so you can check back and reread the entries.

Thanks to all of you who have followed me, and to my favorite blogger friends, I’ll still be following your blogs and commenting to stay in touch.

Merry Christmas to all my readers. And a Happy New Year!

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My other blog is CORNING NY STEP BY STEP -- a view of the city where I live.

CORNING NY STEP BY STEP is now on Facebook. LIKE it and you’ll see when I post a new entry to that blog, plus there will be extra photos of people, places and things of Corning that didn’t make it into the blog.

The Perfect Pie Crust For A Strawberry Heart Pie

I may have missed out in the past, but nevermore! This is THE pie crust recipe. Absolutely spot-on perfect ~ tender and flaky! And the simple strawberry filling... delicious! Just right especially for spring when strawberries are ready for picking and if you don’t pick your own, the stores have them at the best prices of the year.

Ree Drummond who writes The Pioneer Woman blog, received the PERFECT PIE CRUST from one of her readers, Sylvia L, who admits that this recipe has been around for a long, long time and she can’t remember where she originally got it. I know I’ve seen this recipe, or a variation of it, in past years, but I never tried it because I was turned off by the idea of adding vinegar and an egg. (My pie crust typically consists of flour, salt, butter and water.)



You won’t believe my first experience making this crust yesterday when I wanted something other than the store-bought crusts suggested in Miss Buttercup’s STRAWBERRY HEART PIE.

Because my hands are slightly arthritic, I now use a Kitchen Aid mixer and Hamilton Beach food processor for many of my cooking projects, such as bread and pie making.

So, I chose to mix my pie crust with the HB food processor. Let me make it clear that I’m an old-time pie maker--keep every ingredient cold, as little handling of the dough with (warm) hands as possible and work quickly.

As you will see when you look at the recipe, there is little opportunity to keep the pie dough cold during the mixing process, unless you count the addition of the cold water. I’m used to using cold, hard butter and water kept cold by adding ice cubes.

You’ll find the recipe with detailed instructions at The Pioneer Woman. Meantime, I’m going to give you a play by play of my experiences and hints for successful preparation of the PERFECT PIE CRUST...



1. Step One is to mix the Crisco vegetable shortening and flour. Here’s where it seemed to go wrong for me. A few pulses with the food processor should have given me a mixture resembling “a coarse meal”. Instead, the dough looked like a huge ball of glue and I couldn’t imagine adding any more liquids.

2. I persevered, using a few more quick pulses to stir in the beaten egg, cold water, vinegar and salt. Glue, even more gooey.

3. Removing the mixture from the food processor revealed that the dough wasn’t quite as gooey as it had appeared, but still way softer than any pie dough I’d ever prepared.



4. I used digital kitchen scales to measure out three equal portions. All three “discs” went into plastic bags, one being labeled and frozen. The other two were refrigerated because it would be several hours before I needed them.



5. Don’t be afraid to use enough flour to keep things from sticking, ‘cause this is a much stickier dough than most.

6. I don’t recommend rolling flattened dough around the rolling pin to transfer it to the pie pan. Mine stuck to itself and I had to start over. Decidedly annoying.

7. Bottom crust in pan, covered with plastic wrap. Refrigerate again, while cutting out hearts. Meantime, the filling is made and cooling to at least room temperature.

8. See No. 4 below about cutting out hearts.

As for Miss Buttercup’s STRAWBERRY HEART PIE, the recipe is pretty straight forward...

1. For my 9” pie, I chose to use four cups of strawberries (measured after cutting into chunks). Next time I’ll use at least five. If I use a 10” pan, I’ll use six cups, and don’t worry, the pie crust will work for this larger size, too.



2. Out of my four heart cookie cutters, I chose the next to the smallest, trying to match what’s in Miss Buttercup’s picture. She probably used the smallest one. She has more patience than me.



3. The recipe calls for one egg yolk for an egg wash that was applied to both sides of each heart. I used the whole egg and had more than enough to complete that task.

4. Whether you freeze or simply refrigerate your dough to chill it (a MUST!), I suggest taking only one-third or one-half the disc out of the frig at a time when making the hearts. When this dough warms, it’s not easy to handle the hearts without destroying them.



5. About the sanding sugar: I had colored decorating sugar (which is slightly larger grains than regular granulated sugar) and thought it would be pretty to use the red. It is pretty, but I probably won’t use a colored sugar again because it distracts (or is it detracts?!) from the heart shapes.

So, there you have it. An absolutely beautiful, tasty PERFECT PIE CRUST and a STRAWBERRY HEART PIE. This recipe is definitely a keeper and I can’t imagine ever using another pie crust recipe.




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TV TRAY

As a single person, I sometimes (often?) take my meal to the living room and eat off a TV tray while watching a movie or documentary. TV tray meals are usually cobbled-together with whatever happens to be in the kitchen, no measurements recorded.

Proscuitto-wrapped asparagus, mild gruyere, basil & freshly ground black pepper; drizzled with EVOO. Pepperdews (tastes like a slightly sweet pickle at first bite, then a spicier bite kicks in).